5 Articles I Read + Enjoyed This Week
On the 2024 Olympics, the best romance books, friendship break-ups, and Glen Powell being Hollywood's new heartthrob
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Happy Sunday!
I deleted the Twitter app from my phone a couple of weekends back. I would say that you should be proud of me, but I know it’s only a matter of time before I cave and re-download it. Anyway, not having the app at my fingertips (For now!) means that I have gotten better at reading articles that I like on there. Usually, I click that little heart so I can return to them later, but later never comes.
Now, I’m more intentional with my time on Twitter. I’m actually seeking out those articles. Since I always enjoy reading other people’s recommendations on Substack, I wanted to share a few of my own from the past week.
And, yes, one of them is about Glen Powell and Twisters because I am just a girl.
“Jordan Chiles Knows It's Her Time to Shine” - Teen Vogue
I’ve been reading and watching everything to do with the 2024 Olympics. I’ve been watching the celebrations set to Taylor Swift’s “The Alchemy.” I’ve watched Stephen Nedoroscik’s routine on the pommel horse, which helped the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Team win their first medal in 16 years, too many times to count.
I’m obsessed. I can’t read what Madeline Hill writes for Impersonal Foul fast enough. I also recommend reading Aiyana N. Ishmael’s excellent and in-depth profile of the U.S. Women’s National Team gymnast Jordan Chiles.
Now, Chiles sees bettering her mental health as a way to not only help herself but also to remind other athletes, professional or aspiring, that it’s okay to have struggles. “It took me a while to actually ask for help because my sport does teach us to be independent,” she says. “But when I finally did, I was at ease with my mental health and being able to say, ‘It’s okay to ask for help.’ I feel more confident in myself and I’m able to be the Jordan that I’ve always wanted to be when I first started gymnastics.”
The 50 Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now - Time
This list made me realize that I need to get on my TBR. Not because I need to read all 50 of the books on this list (I’ve only read six!) but because I want to read more of the books on this list. Some of them have been sitting on my bookshelf, waiting for me to read them (Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare), and others are sitting in my online basket, waiting for me to buy them (Bolu Babalola’s Honey & Spice).
“Love Island Made Me Believe in Love Again” - Time
I’m another one of the millions of people bouncing back and forth between Love Island UK and Love Island USA this summer. As a long-time fanatic of the UK show, I like reading about how and why the USA version has become the favorite this season. I loved this piece by Taylor Crumpton about the spinoff series.
“The reason for this is pretty simple: With limited amounts of representation of genuine dialogue and healthy relationships on television, Love Island USA gives viewers, specifically Black women, hope that love is in reach. Finally, Black love has taken center stage and, with it, the realities that many Black women face when dating.”
“We Need to Talk About Our Ex-Best Friends” - Elle
As I’ve gotten older, I have become deeply fascinated by friendship and women’s friendships and how they evolve and sometimes irreparably break.
Recently, I listened to House of the Dragon’s Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy talk about how rare it is to see friendship break-ups represented in media and how little literature there is on them, even though they can feel worse than a romantic break-up. I also think about this quote from the iconic Jane Fonda about the importance of women’s friendships and the sustenance they bring to a person’s life all the time. Not to mention, Elizabeth Day’s Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict has been on my TBR since I heard that it was being published.
So, of course, I thoroughly enjoyed Lilly Dancyge’s thoughtful piece about friendship break-ups. They deserve as much care and consideration to heal from as any other break-up because friendships are incredibly important.
If so many of us are suffering through these friendship breakups alone, maybe it’s time to start talking about them more openly—to treat them as the significant losses that they are, and to ask for the same level of support we’d expect from our communities around the ending of a romantic relationship. In order for friendship breakups to be treated with the reverence and care we need, we first have to acknowledge the significance of the relationships themselves, before they end—to stop treating our most formative, meaningful friendships as inherently less important than romantic relationships.
“Help, My Girlfriend Is Obsessed With Glen Powell” - Men’s Health
I haven’t seen Twisters yet, but I have been a fan of Glen Powell for a very long time (Nearly a decade to be exact). I first saw him in 2012’s Stuck in Love, but I didn’t become a Fan until the horror-comedy series Scream Queens in 2015. He was a scene stealer as Chad Radwell of the Dickie Dollar Scholars. Then came his brief appearance as John Glenn in 2016’s Hidden Figures and his role as Mark Reynolds in the severely underrated (To me!) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in 2018. But everything changed with the rom-com Set It Up later that year. I kid you not; I could feel the earth tilt on its axis when that movie dropped. It remains one of the top 5 romantic comedies of the last decade.
I have loved watching Powell’s career evolve and his star power grow. He has become a bonafide movie star with 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick (One of the best movies I have ever seen) and Devotion, 2023’s Hit Man and Anyone But You, and this year’s Twisters. And it helps that Powell really seems to be a genuinely good and kind person who cares about his work. So, it’s no shock that I loved William Goodman’s fun piece about Powell being Hollywood’s latest heartthrob.
Fellas, if you’re concerned about the women in your life falling into the Powell zone—as many are—well, welcome to what it’s like to finally have a bonafide star in the public eye. Ask your mom, and she’ll probably tell you she was obsessed with Kevin Costner, a guy whose persona overlaps with Powell’s quite a bit, at some point. Not only is this level of admiration totally okay, but it’s healthy for the film industry at large!
And that’s all for now! I hope to share more quick recommendations like this soon. Until next time,
💌 Shelby